


In Time

by acme146



Series: Team Goddamnit John [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Babies, Fluff, Happy Ending, Healing, It's Me What Else Do You Expect?, Multi, Polyamory, Religious Faith, Resurrections, bunker family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-24 23:36:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13821837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acme146/pseuds/acme146
Summary: A glimpse into the future for Team Free Will, their family, and their healing. The conclusion of the 'Team Goddamnit John' series.





	In Time

            In time, Dean will believe that he is his own man.

            Knowing that your father hated you, that you could never be good enough for him so why not make the people you love happy instead, is one thing. Accepting that you tried to be like him for so many years, and being unable to disentangle yourself from those facets of your identity, is another.

            But Dean will manage it, because he is that kind of person. He responds to positive reinforcement like a flower to the sun (as Cas says when he feels poetic), and he will learn to listen. He will spend time with his family, with _all_ his family, and he will be grateful for every moment. He will work cases and fix cars and set up Safe Houses all over the country, driving Baby with sackfuls of things that hunters will need and want when they stumble into one of those sanctuaries.

            He will take up knitting too, because Mom does it and Kevin does it, and he’ll make sweaters for everyone, one at a time, with the best yarn he can find for each person. Sam’s sweater will take the better part of two months (and ends up being just a little too big), and Cas’ is made of the softest yarn Dean can find.

            Young ones will still gravitate to Dean, and he will step into the role that Bobby did, being Dad to anyone who needs him. He will even connect with Ben, whose memories get fixed by a mysterious force when he’s eighteen. There will be a huge fight between Dean and Lisa over that decision, but when the dust settles, Ben spends weeks at the Bunker with his dad, blood or not.

            Dean will always love rock, but he likes to listen to softer music every now and then, especially when he and Cas are alone. He will buy satin panties and expensive salt scrubs, call all of his children on their birthdays, and write Cas little love notes.

            He will also still engage in prank wars with Sam (and their Mom, and anyone else who wants to join in), blare music too loud, and he still hates witches, though he’ll make an exception for Rowena.

            Dean will always be Dean, but he will be the man he’s always wished he could be, the kind who was open with all of himself, who loves as hard as he fights, and enjoys little luxuries.

            And the man who will drive his Impala as fast as he can get away with, sometimes with a full car, sometimes just him and his brother, sometimes him and Cas, and sometimes all by himself, driving under a crescent moon towards home, towards family, towards love.

* * *

            In time, Sam will feel healed.

            Not that Chuck’s healing didn’t work. All of the aches were gone, but for someone who’s been in pain for the vast majority of his existence, it will take a while for it to sink in.

            When their family starts coming back from Heaven, Sam will think it’s the peak of happiness. He’ll hug everyone for as long as he can, sleep as little as possible, and talk himself hoarse. It will feel wonderful.

            There will be an awkward moment though, when Jess reveals that she and Sarah are now together. Sam will smile, because he’s happy for them both, but he will worry about Sarah’s husband, and her daughter, who will soon be four.

            Then they will hear from the husband, and find out that he found love with a man, and they’re raising Bess together. And of course his ‘parted-as-friends’ ex-wife (Amara has gotten better at painting realistic scenarios for the returning) is welcome to partial custody of Bess, and Sarah and Jess will have the bright little girl every weekend.

            Angelic travel is quite useful.

            So Sam will support Jess and Sarah, and he will get to work with Charlie and Bobby to digitize and organize every resource in the Bunker, and they find record of other Bunkers (smaller ones, backups for the backups), and they will go on a road trip to find the others, open them up, and make them appropriate Safe Places (if hunters can’t make it to Dean’s Safe Houses).

            But Jess and Sarah will come on that trip too, and after Charlie and Bobby are asleep (or at least pretending to be), they will tell Sam that they love him, too. And that three people in love sounds great to them.

            Sam will be nervous at first, because he loves Jess and he was once close to falling in love with Sarah, but things are different. Their lives are different, he is different. Could they really love him, with how much he has changed?

            Jess and Sarah will assure him that they do. They’ve changed too, after all, but their feelings haven’t.

            And so they will become three.

            And a few weeks later, when they encounter Eileen, they will start to become four.

            Sam will love his ladies, and his ladies will love each other, and their relationship will only strengthen with time, as Bess grows, as Jess and Eileen both become pregnant within two months of each other (this wasn’t on purpose, and Sam endures some teasing because of it). They will name their son Patrick Dean and their daughter Abigail Lee, and they will be happy.

            But it’s before then, the first morning when Sam wakes up with the three of them in his bed and the sounds of family outside the door and the world becoming brighter, that Sam will feel healed.

            Because he loves and is loved, and that is what he deserves.

            And at last, he believes it.

* * *

 

            In time, Cas will find his faith again.

            When he was growing up in Heaven, he had faith in the word of God, the tenets of the angelic world. He believed that he should protect and serve humanity, that the Creator deserved his allegiance, and that evil would be extinguished with the Apocalypse.

            He attached these values to the Father he never met, and so believed in Him. It was enough to sustain him through long years of training and battles, and actually prompted his many rebellions (the ones Naomi and later Zachariah quashed). After all, the word of God counted above all, how could some of Heaven’s plans be correct?

            _But the Lord works in mysterious ways, and so Cas never truly questioned the Word, even when he questioned his fellow angels._

Then the apocalypse happened, and Cas encountered humanity for the first time, _really_ saw them. And he saw angels properly for the first time.

            And as he fell in love, so his faith began to falter. Because how could his Father plan for Dean Winchester to be merely a vessel, only a pawn?

            And seeing Sam Winchester’s struggles against every instinct, against everything Heaven and Hell threw in his path, Cas doubted further. This wasn’t right. This was wrong.

            But this was the Word.

            And when he couldn’t find his Father—when prayer, when pleading, when threats, when searching did nothing—Cas gave up on his faith. Clearly God didn’t need his angels to believe in him, or he would have heard Castiel’s prayer. He would have fought to protect humanity from Lucifer and Michael’s fights, from the clashing of Heaven and Hell played out through two good men.

           But Cas will find it again.

           He will spend time with the Winchesters and aid other hunters, but he will spend time in Heaven too. He will learn about Amara, begin to understand her wildness, and his fear will turn to respect and love, because he recognizes her delight in the small and glorious, just as he does.

           And he will spend time with his Father, and speak to him as an equal—not an unquestioning soldier, not a desperate son, but as an equal. As someone who understands the depth of error and the triumph of redemption, who earned these on his own.

          And he will come to understand at last how flawed his Father is, and how many of these flaws were transferred to humanity. He will see his Father’s mistakes, hear excuses that are insufficient, and grasp how petty an immortal, all-powerful being can truly become.

          And he will love him, anyways. Cas will accept these flaws and forgive Chuck and appreciate him for his mercy, for his enthusiasm, for his love. He will join his Father in a strange bar, and they will drink and talk about all the questions eternal beings can understand. They will work on Heaven together, and Cas will understand at last that he was loved and trusted, and that he is worthy in Heaven’s eyes.

          Which will be nice to know, but Cas will always find his worth in Dean Winchester’s eyes and in the warmth of the family they share, and this above all else will restore his faith.

          Because in all of Father’s creations, Cas will find his home in these people and in this time, and that was the Word.

**Author's Note:**

> Anyone catching references to the OCs in 'In Name'?   
> This concludes this little 'verse, I had a lot of fun writing it, and I hope you're all satisfied with how it turned out. And hey, if you've read my Sherlock/Princess Bride story, the next installment will be up on March 3rd.   
> Cheers,  
> Acme146


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